FührervsführstWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Führer is a noun, führst is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Führer” is a noun and “führst” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,824
“Führer” frequency rank
#32,048
“führst” frequency rank
34872
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Führer führst
Definition leitende Person in einer Organisation, Vereinigung oder Bewegung 2. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs führen

Where the eye mixes Führer and führst

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Führer (CVCCVC) and führst (CVCCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
Führer
6 ch
führst

Look-alike desk: Führer vs führst

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Führer is [ˈfyːʁɐ] while führst is [fyːɐ̯st]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34872, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Führer is recorded at frequency rank #2,824, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfyːʁɐ]. führst is at rank #32,048, tagged as averb, pronounced [fyːɐ̯st].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 34872, this pair ranks #1,653,368 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Führer vs führst

Shared letters: fhrü. Private to "Führer": e. Private to "führst": st.

"Führer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "führst" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Führer" for "führst" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Führer" is a noun and "führst" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Führer" vs "führst" - which ranks higher?
"Führer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,824 in our German list, against #32,048 for "führst". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Führer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "führst" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,653,368 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Führer" and "führst" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fehlst vs führst". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,653,368 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list